The present invention relates to dispensers from which lengths of sheet material may be manually dispensed from supplies of the sheet materials carried on the dispensers, which dispensers include cutting members having sharp cutting edges adapted for transversely cutting dispensed lengths of the sheet materials from the supplies of sheet materials remaining on the dispensers, and include means for protecting users of the dispensers from the cutting members.
The art is replete with dispensers from which lengths of sheet materials may be manually dispensed from supplies of the sheet materials (typically from rolls of the sheet material) that are carried on the dispensers, which dispensers include cutting members having cutting edges adapted for transversely cutting dispensed lengths of the sheet materials from the supplies of sheet materials remaining on the dispensers, and which dispensers include means for protecting users of the dispensers from the cutting members. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,229,961; 4,989,769 describing a guard for a cutting blade adapted to cut folded polymeric sheet material described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,767; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/855,687 filed May 14, 1997, (International Publication Number WO 98/51603); and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/052,400 filed Mar. 31, 1998, (International Publication Number WO 99/49804) provide illustrative examples.
The present invention provides a dispenser from which lengths of a sheet material may be dispensed from a supply of the sheet material carried on the dispenser, which dispenser includes means for providing a cutting edge adapted for transversely cutting a dispensed length of the sheet material from the supply of sheet material remaining on the dispenser, and which dispenser includes means for protecting users of the dispenser from a cutting edge which is either less expensive, more effective for the intended use, or simpler to use than such means that have been provided on known prior art dispensers.
In the dispenser according to the present invention the means for providing the cutting edge is an elongate blade having the sharp cutting edge along a first elongate edge, which blade is fixed to a frame of the dispenser, and the means for protecting users of the dispenser from the cutting edge comprises a guard strip of resiliently moveable (i.e., compressible or flexible) material attached adjacent or along one major surface of the blade. That guard strip of resiliently moveable material has a contact surface normally extending along the sharp cutting edge to protect users of the dispenser from the cutting edge, which contact surface can be resiliently moved by pulling the side of the sheet material toward the cutting edge, thereby allowing the cutting edge to transversely sever the sheet material being pulled from the roll.
The blade can include generally triangular teeth along its first edge with the cutting edge being along the teeth, and the guard strip of resiliently moveable material should not be attached to the blade along the teeth to allow it to be easily moved (e.g., compressed or flexed) when the sheet material is pulled toward the cutting edge to transversely sever the sheet material being dispensed.
In one embodiment described herein the dispenser is portable and dispenses sheet material from a roll of the sheet material. The frame of the dispenser includes a bridging portion adapted to extend axially along a portion of the periphery of the roll, and further includes end wall portions fixed to the ends of the bridging portion that are adapted to extend along opposite end surfaces of the roll of sheet material and on which are means for journaling the roll of sheet material for rotation about its axis. The blade is fixed to the bridging portion of the frame adjacent one edge with the cutting edge adjacent the axis about which the roll rotates and with the major surface of the blade adjacent a major part of the bridging portion disposed at an angle of more than about 110 degrees (e.g., preferably about 135 degrees) with respect to a plane passing through that axis and generally through the cutting edge to restrict contact between a person using the dispenser and the cutting edge. The guard strip of resiliently moveable material extends along the major surface of the blade that is adjacent the major part of the bridging portion. The contact surface of the guard strip restricts contact between sheet material being pulled from the roll and the cutting edge, but can be resiliently moved by pulling the side of the sheet material toward the cutting edge to allow the cutting edge to transversely sever the sheet material being pulled from the roll. The guard strip also helps restrict contact between a person using the dispenser and the cutting edge when the roll of sheet material becomes sufficiently small in diameter that a user can put his or her fingers between the roll and the cutting edge.
In another embodiment described herein the dispenser is a modification of the portable dispenser described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,214 that forms the sheet material dispensed from two rolls of material carried on the dispenser (e.g., a roll of longitudinally folded polymeric film and a roll of adhesive coated tape that is applied along one edge of the film with a portion of the tape projecting past the edge of the film by which the dispensed sheet material may be adhered to a surface for the purpose of masking during painting). The sharp cutting edge on the blade for that dispenser is spaced from the path along which sheet material is pulled from the dispenser and is positioned where it can be inadvertently contacted by a careless user of the dispenser. The guard strip of resiliently compressible material attached along the blade can be sequentially compressed along its length to afford sequential transverse cutting of the sheet material on the cutting edge, while providing significant resistance to compression when thus contacted by the relatively wide surfaces of a users fingers or hand to thereby restrict seriously injurious contact with the cutting edge of the blade.